The 7 Best Music Videos of 2013

Here’s a list of the top seven music videos of 2013. I picked them based on popularity, other end-of-the-year lists, what people talked about the most, and what I think was cool this year.

7. Miley Cyrus, Wrecking Ball

This video is predictably included in the list, in part because you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting Miley Cyrus this year, and in part because it’s a pretty good representation of Miley’s bizarre sense of sexuality. Her licking a sledgehammer and then riding a wrecking ball naked was just weird enough that it couldn’t be a complete turn-on (that hammer probably tasted disgusting!), but that kind of gross/hot dichotomy is the key to her schtick.

That schtick is important — because it’s launched a huge amount of conversation about what it means to be a young feminist in 2013. Should you like Miley and all that she stands for or should you hate her? The video for Wrecking Ball also spawned a bunch of hilarious parodies for endless hours of Internet entertainment.